Been playing through Fallout 3 on my PC it's probably one of my favorite games. I also reinstalled the original Farcry looking forward to that. With my son we've been playing the old magic school bus games from when I was a kid as well as Some Safari.

Dark Forces

Played through missions 2 and 3.
Mission 2 is frustrating because like 90% of the level is completely useless; but because you wouldn't know that the first time through, you end up searching through a bunch of useless buildings just to find absolutely nothing. Then you turn find the power generator and simply head back to the beginning of the level. Just seems like a waste of time. This is maybe my third of fourth time through this mission, but I had completely forgotten the layout so it was like playing it for the first time again. Not fun.
I actually enjoyed mission 3 (which seems to be hated by pretty much everyone). I understand people dislike having to take the same "slide" several times (it is a waste of time), but the level is otherwise straightforward... as long as you pay attention to the pre-mission briefing, you have an idea of what needs to be done, and you are forced to explore the level bit by bit due to how the central switch only opens one of several doors at a time.

Next up is mission 4, which is point where I typically lose interest in the game. My recollection of this mission is exploring a massive maze-like army base hunting for all sorts of switches on multiple levels accessed through an elevator. I've gotten through this mission once before (somewhat randomly), so hopefully I can get through it again and stick with the game this time!

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-06-17, 14:34:

Dark Forces

Played through missions 2 and 3.
Mission 2 is frustrating because like 90% of the level is completely useless; but because you wouldn't know that the first time through, you end up searching through a bunch of useless buildings just to find absolutely nothing. Then you turn find the power generator and simply head back to the beginning of the level. Just seems like a waste of time.

Did you happen to notice the enemies will ignore you if you don't turn on the field light, use IR goggles and punch people out with your fists in the dark?

Dark Forces isn't a stealth game by any measure but the stealth in it reminds me a little of Strife's attempt at doing so in the Doom Engine. (which was not any good either)

Back to Quake2 after finishing DN3D (same PC, voodoo2SLI now for Q2). The cd music track of Q2 is really underrated.

Wolfenstein 3D. I'm playing it very thoroughly, trying to find all the secrets etc. So far I've finished Episode 1 and found 98% of secrets and 99% of treasure according to the stats.

kolderman wrote on 2020-06-20, 09:51:

Back to Quake2 after finishing DN3D (same PC, voodoo2SLI now for Q2). The cd music track of Q2 is really underrated.

Most would say that OG Quake had the better sound track because NIN, but I'm a bigger fan of the QII soundtrack as it's far more musical instead of industrial.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

This game is hard, but that's what makes it so real. It's set during the Middle Ages and you are not the hero - you are the son of a blacksmith who can barely hold up a sword.

During the first few minutes of the game I managed to get severely beaten up in a fist fight and that was when I realized that I need to play this game very carefully and avoid conflict as often as I can.
This mechanic of being a weak human compared with the amazing graphics makes it seem very real to me.

Also, there is a DLC of this game that lets you play as a woman in the Middle Ages. It's one of the best DLC's I've ever played - as a woman, it's even harder for you to survive - I imagine that being a very accurate representation of the timeframe.

Sam & Max Hit the Road
First off, Sam & Max is a beautiful game. There are plenty of unique animations and the backgrounds are fantastic. It's got a nice soundtrack too, though the real audio delight here is the voice acting; I typically turn voice acting off in any game I play (even modern ones), but the voice acting here is perfect—especially for Sam and Max. Side note: General MIDI (Sound Canvas) over AWE64 results in the worst hanging note problem I've ever heard, but selecting the MT-32 soundtrack instead completely resolves the issue... really weird.

Having said that, I dunno about this one. I feel like I am gathering solutions (items) before I even know what the problems (puzzles) are. The game has me searching for a Bigfoot, and I've gathered a clue (his hair), a lead (ran off with the Giraffe-necked Girl), and a possible suspect (Conroy Bumpus)... but that's it. I've picked up a dozen completely random things that make no sense, just because I know in these games you are supposed to click on everything and pick up anything you can.

[Edit] I tried for another hour this morning, and I guess these games are just not for me. I explored all the areas available to me and made no progress, so I checked a walkthrough to see what I should be looking for. The solution was to use Max on a random thing in the tunnel of love to open up another area to explore. Even after reading what needs to be done, I'm sitting here thinking, but why? How does it advance my investigation, other than "you can click on this spot on the screen, so probably you need to use something on it."

On top of that, the game seems to mislead you. If you examine the lock on Trixie's trailer, Sam mentions it being the kind of lock you can shoot off with a gun. There's a gun (though I guess it's fake) under Jesse James' severed hand that you can't pick up. I figured there was some puzzle involved with the hand and its gun but no; instead, you have to use Max on the wall of the tunnel of love to enter a secret area, where a man gives you the key to the trailer. Huh?

Sam & Max is the one LucasArts game where common sense applies least to the puzzles, and I get your pain. You really have to get into that humor/comicbook thinking to get ahead in many points. I remember not being able to finish it without a walkthrough back in the day.

It's too bad, because I really enjoy the humor of Sam & Max. I just find the moon logic to be very frustrating.

Trying out espn nfl 2k5 via PCSX2 emulator. This actually looks cool with the graphic settings jacked up.
Unfortunately my i3 sys is too weak for decent framerates so will have to upgrade before trying other ps2 games.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-22, 07:27:

Sam & Max is the one LucasArts game where common sense applies least to the puzzles, and I get your pain. You really have to get into that humor/comicbook thinking to get ahead in many points. I remember not being able to finish it without a walkthrough back in the day.

Same here, I used a walkthrough to finish the game. I did the same for Indiana Jones and the Fate Of Atlantis.
But for Full Throttle, I think I won't need a walkthrough if I remember well how I played it years ago. I didn't need a walkthrough either for Spycraft: The Great Game, having played it several times.

Fate of Atlantis, I finished without any clues/cheats. Same with Day of the Tentacle, The Dig (incredibly underrated) and Monkey Island 1. Monkey Island 2 and Sam&Max got me at certain points..

You want hard? You want impossible? Try shooting at enemy aircraft without a bloody croshair.

Well, it's Nieuport 11, what do you expect?

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2020-06-22, 15:56:

You want hard? You want impossible? Try shooting at enemy aircraft without a bloody croshair.

Don't know about you, but I have plenty of problems even with crosshairs. (though I play Privateer 2 and Descent: FreeSpace)

Leading your target properly is a art form, and I haven't the slightest clue how to master it.

DracoNihil wrote on 2020-06-22, 21:06:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2020-06-22, 15:56:

You want hard? You want impossible? Try shooting at enemy aircraft without a bloody croshair.

Don't know about you, but I have plenty of problems even with crosshairs. (though I play Privateer 2 and Descent: FreeSpace)

Leading your target properly is a art form, and I haven't the slightest clue how to master it.

Pardon the very late reply, I got severe internet problems here.

Anyway, I thought in Privateer 2 it's pretty easy to lead your target, let alone Descent: FreeSpace. Among games where it's hard to lead your target is Wing Commander I and II, Their Finest Hour, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, because those games use finite bitmaps/sprites to represent your targets, which are supposedly moving in 3D. As such, the target's apparent heading doesn't always translate properly to its actual heading, making leading your target difficult.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2020-06-25, 09:32:

Anyway, I thought in Privateer 2 it's pretty easy to lead your target, let alone Descent: FreeSpace. Among games where it's hard to lead your target is Wing Commander I and II, Their Finest Hour, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, because those games use finite bitmaps/sprites to represent your targets, which are supposedly moving in 3D. As such, the target's apparent heading doesn't always translate properly to its actual heading, making leading your target difficult.

Both games have very peculiar collision detection, though Priv2 is a tad less precise (i.e. more lenient) than FreeSpace but both games have their absolute worst enemy type that moves faster than fast and is almost impossible to land shots on.

Finished the human campaign of Warcraft1. Leaving the Orc campaign to another time, switching genres to a platformer I have wanted to play through for a while now - Biomenace.

DracoNihil wrote on 2020-06-25, 10:12:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2020-06-25, 09:32:

Anyway, I thought in Privateer 2 it's pretty easy to lead your target, let alone Descent: FreeSpace. Among games where it's hard to lead your target is Wing Commander I and II, Their Finest Hour, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, because those games use finite bitmaps/sprites to represent your targets, which are supposedly moving in 3D. As such, the target's apparent heading doesn't always translate properly to its actual heading, making leading your target difficult.

Both games have very peculiar collision detection, though Priv2 is a tad less precise (i.e. more lenient) than FreeSpace but both games have their absolute worst enemy type that moves faster than fast and is almost impossible to land shots on.

Freespace is hard indeed, but in Privateer 2, it's quite easy to score hits on enemy ships. The only hard-to-shoot enemy ship in Privateer 2 is Jincilla Skull due to its agility, but everything else is cakewalk.

Steam's having a summer sale (in winter?) so I picked up a couple of games that have been on my wishlist - Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Full Ace Tennis Sim. AcO looks interested but I was most interested in Full Ace, having mastered my other fave tennis game (Sampras Extreme on PS1). Full Ace looks dated but this game is all about the sim - no fancy cutscenes or licensing actual players, etc. Looks the business so far - steep learning curve but it doesn't seem to be hard for hard's sake; it controls well and will, I think, be a very intuitive and satisfying experience after many weeks of practice. You have to 'set up' before a shot for example, i.e. choose backhand or forehand, then decide which shot type, then aim. There's an online mode too once you're good enough, so that might be fun.

So far I've run through the epic tutorial twice and lost 2 matches - I think the first thing I need to do is purge all those years of Sampras Extreme from my synapses, but I'm pleased to report that Full Ace is similar - superficially a crude affair but refined where it counts.